


Token

by sonno a caccia (retronxnt)



Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: Alibi Being Annoying, Gen, Implied Relationships, Rants, Relationship Advice, Ryad sick of her shit lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 09:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21336142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retronxnt/pseuds/sonno%20a%20caccia
Summary: Alibi (Aria de Luca) and Jackal (Ryad Ramírez Al-Hassar) are set for a mission together and Alibi can't help but pester one of the few operators she doesn't know much about. Eventually she ends up giving him some good advice, despite her former annoyance.Kind of ranty and implied relationships. Brief cussing.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Token

"Ryad 'Jackal' Ramírez-- I don't think I've had the honor of holding an objective with you before," Alibi said with a peppy air as the two began holding down their site. He only hummed in response.

"Usually pitted against each other by the position divisions. Kind of a faulty system, if you ask me, but I won't drag you into  _ that  _ mess," she continued with a chuckle to herself.

"Probably because I didn't ask," he replied bluntly, kicking aside some trash and broken wood in the center of the room. She swallowed at the retort and set down a reinforcement with a heavy huff.

Normally, Aria was quite often the one to be reserved. Amongst everyday faces and ordinary recruits, she was a stoic symbol of precision and grace. When it came to the other operators she didn't quite know, however, she couldn't help but want to know more.

Ryad wasn't necessarily unfamiliar. She had read some files here, heard some rumors there, maybe asked some questions along the way. She was well aware of his condition. Aware of why and how he joined his military, and the unfortunate tragedy surrounding his older brother. Yet she couldn't help but feel like there was something deeper. Presenting himself as a wise, quiet, and probably-phasing-out-half-the-time sort of man, there had to be something deeper. Something he was thinking about while he drifted in and out of awareness from time to time.

While she honestly didn't care for what he did with his time and his thoughts, something nagged at her to dig past the surface. Perhaps she'll find some treasure along the way.

They used up the last of their resources and Jackal quietly created a corner for himself to hold an angle from. Used to taking up different routes and flanks as the mission went on, Alibi simply took a perch at the opposite wall and awaited instruction. They were both informed the hostiles would be arriving in roughly twenty-five minutes.

Instinctively, she took up her observational devices. She had famously brilliant intel, and her already deployed Prismas would lead her to the positions she needed to take. Finding no activity yet from the previously set up CCTVs (ofcourse), she tapped the corner of her device impatiently.

She studied him from her perch. His gear was dark and pretty efficient-seeming. Taller than Maestro (a comparable feat in her book) yet looked almost carryable. The Eyenox looked like a genuine masterpiece - how they modeled a forensic tool into a mobile and near seamlessly real-time updating format, combined with typical tracking intel techniques - instead of admitting its prowess she resorted to noting how ridiculous it looked in better lighting. She tried not to snicker out loud.

"Nervous?" she piped up, trying to initiate some kind of conversation while the twenty-five minutes dragged by.

"Not really."  
"Even though we're on the defensive?"

"Not my first time at the rodeo,  _ cariño _ ."  _ [hon] _

"Probably not. Didn't mean to assume. … How'd you sleep?"

"... Was that malicious?"  
"Not intentionally, no-"

"Terribly."

"Ah-"  
"As usual."

"Huh."

She awkwardly shut up, finding that question likely doing more harm than good. He sighed at her prodding.

He didn't know Alibi at all- Aria, was it? His memory often escapes him, and he didn't really have time to care all that much about the other various operators he was met with. Although not having met her more than once or twice before, he could already gander she was kind of annoying. Her pushing for his attention seemed overbearing and he'd rather spend the (notably short, for a man of his age) time pondering something else than the weather. How old was she anyway, thirty something?-- who cares.

Yet, although he hardly remembers meeting her before, she seemed a bit different from the small passing-bys they've had. Why, just minutes ago she seemed to be completely to herself as they arrived to the site. Now that the others were gone, she seemed to have a completely paralleling persona. Her know-it-all introduction only bothered him further.

"We're not just gonna sit here in silence for half an hour, are we?" she tried again.

"I was quite fine with it, actually."

"Right. Silence is golden."

"That's a wise saying."

"But don't you think it can be  _ too _ quiet?"

"I think that's what the terrorists say right before I finish them off," he replied coldly. She laughed at first, but quickly stopped finding that maybe that was really true. She gulped again at his straight forwardness.

"You're not rejecting me for me, now are you?"  
"What- I'm rejecting you?-"

"In conversation. I know I'm not that unlikeable. What's wrong with a little talk?"

"Ugh, there's a time and place for it, right here and now is neither."  
"_Dai_, we've got half an hour to just us two. Don't be boring." _[Come on]_

"Maybe I'm not the kind of person for small talk."

"Then let's not talk small. We can talk about anything you want."  
"I don't want."  
"Please?"   
She was seriously getting on his nerves. Anything to get over her pestering.

" _ Bien _ . Shoot."  _ [Fine] _

"Okay, back to my question it is then. It's not me, right?"

"Don't be self-centered."

"So it's not me?"

"Why do you care?"

"It's my job. Well, not to care, but just to know things. Caring comes along the way."

"It's not you. Although you are incredulously annoying."

" _ Bene _ , what's up then?"  _ [Good] _

He paused, admittedly considering letting her know at least half of "what's up."

"You can trust me. I never show my cards. That'd be cheating."

" _ Oh solo lárgate, _ " he said crossing his arms and turning away.  _ [just fuck off] _

"Wait, don't phase out, we've still got like twenty minutes-"  
"And I'll spend them _quietly,_ thank you."

Aria slumped back, defeated. Normally she could manage to get some talk out of anyone, but this time it only proved to be bleak. Maybe she pushed to hard for a first time. Maybe he was walled up so hard you couldn't see a crack of sunlight inside. Gee, if that wasn't familiar-

"Quietly is usually how I end up spending them," he started, lowly. She smirked at the metaphorical ray peaking through the bricks.

"Usually?"  
"Always."

"Always quiet?"  
"Always alone… and thus quiet."

"Oh. You mean just on missions, or?"

"No. Always."

"Oh. … Why's that?"

"Ugh, just-- no time or room for acquaintances, or anything more than that."

"Not even a friend?"

"Tsk, what's that?"

She winced at his somewhat pathetic response. 

"What about your brother?"  
"Excuse me?"  
"Sorry. Not trying to open old wounds."  
"What about him?"

"Was he a friend?"  
"Yes. Heh, yes, the only one I ever knew. I'm sure you know he's well gone. He was the last of it."

"Last of your friends?"  
"Yes. I've known it true for some time. No one will ever be like him."

"I know how that feels."

Aria stepped up and vaulted over the barrier between them. He glanced at her for only a second before returning his eyes to the scope he was fixed on.

"What, that your only companions will leave you and maybe you're just-"  
"Maybe you're just meant to be alone."

He locked his jaw at the accurate response. "What would you know about that?" he asked cautiously, keeping his eyes glued away from her.

"I know everything. But I didn't have to hear it to know it, this time, because I know the feeling too," she began to explain, fiddling with the magazine in her Mx4. "That your only confidant has slipped away and you're on your own again. That even your closest relatives have left you and you don't know what to do. That maybe it's better to just lock up every feeling you've ever had and accept that no one will ever accept you again. Yeah, I know."

"That's oddly specific."

"But it's true, isn't it? Not just for me but for you?"

"...Maybe."

"You don't have to confide in me. I would never expect that of myself, and I know how we can be. As much as I'd love to say otherwise, I… I know myself too well to let me manipulate… myself. Does that make sense? … No, probably not,  _ quello che _ \-  _ [whatever] _ what I'm trying to get to is that… it doesn't always have to be like that. Even after a lifetime of abandonment and trying to prove yourself to yourself, there's always a chance for change. This probably all sounds stupid coming from someone a dozen younger, but I've already seen this change. I know it's a history, and I can understand feeling that you're too far gone. But, maybe, you just have to wait for the right sign to show itself. The right token. It'll come along." 

He considered what she said but kept his lips sealed as his fingers twitched. She looked up at him and blinked.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to carry on."

"What was your sign?"

"Well, that's a secret, but I'll tell you it came in the most obvious of ways. And it came out of rarity, straight into my hands. You'll find it's clearer than you thought it would be."

They were interrupted by a familiar voice again. Hostiles enclosing in five minutes. She only paused for a moment before pushing herself over the barricade. She glanced back at him for a second, before running off to take a different angle. His eyes blurred as he stared down the sight in thought.

* * *

  
  


The mission was a simple success. Alibi easily took out just about half of them from flanking alone, and while it took longer than expected, the point was held with little difficulty. Both operators left unscathed and Alibi was showered with back-pats regarding her tactic that made the mission twice as effortless. As soon as they had stepped foot back at headquarters, she returned to the reserved pinnacle he thought her out to be. This confused him at first, but he caught on that maybe her implication was that she really was still locking up every feeling, knowing she won't be accepted. He felt a bit sympathetic.

He closed the gate to his area under the Attack division and took off his gear quickly, dying to just go home and stop having to socialize around. Then, his phone made a slight buzz, drowned out by his jacket lying on top of it. He picked it up and the screen lit up to show a new message. From Elena.

_ > Hey, I know you just got off, and we haven't really talked much since last session, but I was just wondering if you maybe wanted to spend a weekend together? I don't really have a place or anything but I've got nothing else to do for weeks,  _ me está matando _ !  _ [it's killing me] _ Let me know if you wanna make plans! _

He stared at it for all too long, reading and rereading it five times too many. His immediate response was to want to say no, that he could be spending the time struggling to catch up on sleep, or organizing files, or investigating some more… but… it didn't feel right...

_ The most obvious of ways. Straight into my hands. _

_ > sure. we can meet at my place if you want. _

_ The right token. It'll come along. _


End file.
